Share this:

BLOCKED CROSSROADS OF THE WORLD: Crowds jam Times Square's pedestrian plaza yesterday, as city officials sought ideas for more such "malls." Photo: NY Post: Chad Rachman

Motorists, beware — there are more pedestrian plazas on the way.

City officials, pleased with the success of the traffic ban in Times and Herald squares, yesterday asked community groups to submit smaller-scale ideas to expand the program around the city.

The Department of Transportation is asking nonprofits to focus on neighborhoods such as Murray Hill and the Upper East Side, as well as Astoria, Queens, and Borough Park, Brooklyn.

The plaza have been criticized for taking space from motorists in an already-gridlocked city and handing it over to pedestrians.

“A plaza is considered to be an area located fully in the right of way — streets and sidewalks — which may vary in size and shape,” according to the department’s guidelines.

But snarling traffic is a big no-no, and department officials said they will “not pursue applications that would produce significant adverse impacts on traffic,” the guidelines say.

“Cutting off more streets would be annoying for many drivers, I’m sure. I think New York is already suffering from gridlock bad enough,” said Mikayla Gilbert, 32, who was sitting in a pedestrian plaza in the Meatpacking District.

But other pedestrians said drivers have a knack for getting around obstacles.

“There’s plenty of other streets around that the cars can get through if they decide to close them off,” said Michael Lido, 24.

“It’s a cool little area around here,” he said about the plaza at Gansevoort Street in the Meatpacking District, “and I think it will definitely boost its vibe if they make more of them.”

It’s the third time the agency has called for the suggestions. They approved nine projects out of 22 applications in “round one,” in 2008.

Nonprofits have until June 30 to propose plaza designs. If a plaza is approved and built, the community group has to maintain it.

Plazas accepted from this round will likely be under construction by July 2012.

The department will likely get a slew of applications for the Lincoln Center area, where groups are mulling two projects, said Councilwoman Gale Brewer.

One would expand Dante Park, which is right next to the center, and another would improve the open space near Martin Luther King HS at West 66th Street and Amsterdam Avenue.